What is website design?

Website design is the process of planning and creating how a website looks, feels, and functions for visitors, encompassing layout, colour, typography, navigation structure, and the overall flow that guides a visitor from arrival to a desired action like making a purchase or submitting an inquiry. Good design decisions are grounded in how people actually scan a page (research shows most visitors scan in an F-shaped or Z-shaped pattern rather than reading top to bottom), which is why key information and calls-to-action are typically placed along these natural eye-movement paths rather than buried in dense text blocks.

Design also has to balance aesthetic goals (brand personality, visual appeal) against usability goals (can a visitor actually find what they need quickly), since a visually striking site that confuses or slows down visitors typically converts worse than a simpler, more navigable one.

Modern website design is built primarily around a mobile-first approach, since the majority of web traffic globally now arrives on mobile devices, meaning the mobile layout is often designed and validated before the desktop version, reversing the older desktop-first convention.